I’ve wrestled with what to say on this pressing second, lengthy yearned for and that usually appeared past attain throughout these final 15 hideous months.
One of many questions that I grappled with was this: What may I presumably share with readers that might even remotely seize the which means and profundity of an obvious settlement to cease the wholesale bloodbath of Palestinians?
I had not suffered. My house is unbroken. My household and I are alive and effectively. We’re heat, collectively and protected.
So, the opposite urgent dilemma I confronted was: Is it my place to jot down in any respect? This house must be reserved, I believed, for Palestinians to mirror on the horrors they’ve endured and what’s to come back.
Their voices will, in fact, be heard right here and elsewhere within the days and weeks forward. My voice, on this context, is insignificant and, beneath these grievous circumstances, borders on being irrelevant.
Nonetheless, in case you and, particularly, Palestinians will oblige me, that is what I’ve to say.
I believe that there are 4 phrases that every, in their very own approach, bear some significance to Wednesday’s blissful information that the weapons are poised to go silent.
The primary and maybe most becoming phrase is “reduction”.
There might be ample time and alternative for the “consultants” to attract up their predictable scorecards of the “winners” and “losers” and the broader short- and long-term strategic implications of Wednesday’s deal.
There’ll, as effectively, be ample time and alternative for extra “consultants” to contemplate the political penalties of Wednesday’s deal within the Center East, Europe and Washington, DC.
My preoccupation, and I believe the preoccupation of most Palestinians and their family members in Gaza and the occupied West Financial institution, is that peace has arrived lastly.
How lengthy it should final is a query greatest posed tomorrow. At this time, allow us to all revel within the reduction that could be a dividend of peace.
Palestinian girls and boys are dancing with reduction. After months of grief, loss and unhappiness, pleasure has returned. Smiles have returned. Hope has returned.
Allow us to take pleasure in a satisfying measure of reduction, if not pleasure, in that.
There’s reduction in Israel, too.
The households of the surviving captives will quickly be reunited with the brothers and sisters, daughters and sons, moms and dads, they’ve longed to embrace once more.
They may, little doubt, require care and a spotlight to heal the injuries to their minds, souls and our bodies.
That might be one other, most welcomed, dividend of peace.
The following phrase is “gratitude”.
These of us who, day after dreadful day, have watched – bereft and helpless as a ruthless apartheid state has gone methodically about lowering Gaza to mud and reminiscence – owe our deepest gratitude to the courageous, decided helpers who’ve executed their greatest to ease the ache and struggling of besieged Palestinians.
We owe our eternal gratitude to the numerous nameless individuals, in numerous locations all through Gaza and the West Financial institution, who, at grave threat and on the expense of so many younger, promising lives, put the welfare of their Palestinian brothers and sisters forward of their very own.
We should be pleased about their selflessness and braveness. They did their responsibility. They walked into the hazard. They didn’t retreat. They stood agency. They held their floor. They rebuffed the purveyors of loss of life and destruction who tried to erase their delight and dignity.
They reminded the world that humanity will prevail regardless of the occupier’s efforts to crush it.
The third phrase is “acknowledge”.
The world should acknowledge the steadfast resistance of Palestinians.
The occupier’s purpose was to interrupt the desire and spirit of Palestinians. That has been the occupier’s intent for the previous 75 years.
As soon as once more, the occupier has failed.
Palestinians are indefatigable. They’re, like their brethren in Eire and South Africa, immovable.
They refuse to be routed from their land as a result of they’re wedded to it by religion and historical past. Their roots are too deep and indestructible.
Palestinians will determine their destiny – not the marauding armies headed by racists and battle criminals who cling to the antiquated notion that may is true.
It would take a bit extra time and persistence, however the sovereignty and salvation that Palestinians have earned in blood and heartache is, I’m satisfied, approaching not far over the horizon.
The ultimate phrase is “disgrace”.
There are politicians and governments who will perpetually put on the disgrace of allowing Israel to commit genocide towards the individuals of Palestine.
These politicians and governments will deny it. The proof of their crimes is apparent. We will see it within the photographs of the apocalyptic panorama of Gaza. We are going to report each title of the greater than 46,000 Palestinian victims of their complicity.
That might be their decrepit legacy.
Relatively than cease the mass homicide of innocents, they enabled it. Relatively than stop hunger and illness from claiming the lives of infants and youngsters, they inspired it. Relatively than flip off the spigot of arms, they delivered them. Relatively than shout “sufficient”, they spurred the killing to go on and on.
We are going to bear in mind. We won’t allow them to neglect.
That’s our accountability: to guarantee that they by no means escape the disgrace that may observe each considered one of them like an extended, disfiguring shadow within the late-day solar.
Disgrace on them. Disgrace on all of them.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
